AI and Applications

AI and the college application process can be a complex topic.

Here is the reality, AI can be very helpful in certain aspects, but it is just your starting point and it is not foolproof or the magic solution to admissions.  After all, you are NOT a robot, you are YOU and there is no one better at being you than YOU!

So, let's get the temptation out of the way first... can it write your entire college application essay for you?  No, of course not.  Yes, I get that this is tempting to just let one of the AI tools come up with an essay about you for the college, but it is going to lack your personality and your unique story.  Will it be gramatically correct?  Yes.  Will it answer the question prompted?  Certainly.  But is that enough?  Unfortunately, no.

So, how can you use AI effectively in the admissions process?  

- It is a great tool for searching for colleges.  You can tell it a particular area of the country, a major, an acceptance rate, and the clubs or organizations you're hoping to find in a college and AI can generate a list of potential colleges for you to investigate.

- It can be a resource for figuring out how to tackle some aspects of the application.  For example, if you type in something like, "can you help me complete the activities section on Common App?" it will give you a step by step process which can be useful.

- It can help make revisions to your essays or condense something you have written down into the word count required.  As with edits made by your parents, your English teacher, or anyone else who helps review your essay draft, it is important to make sure that in the end the essay still sounds like you.  You don't want something that has been so revised to the point that it doesn't even sound like something you'd actually say, think or feel.

- You can even use AI to help brainstorm ideas on good topics based on your characteristics and values that you want to share with the college.

One of the presentations that I attended talked about how unbelievably exponential the growth of AI has been from an industry perspective.  So this is definitely a field that is growing and changing rapidly and how it will influence college applications will grow and change just as quickly.

Right now, some colleges are saying that they don't anticipate knowing if students are using AI to create their essays, but others say that they are leaning heavily on the ethical statements students commit to when submitting their application that this application is their words, their creation and their own voice.  Some even stated that if they were to find out later that the essay was AI generated, then they would hold revoking the acceptance as a viable option. And some colleges have even shared that they are no longer considering the essay as an evaluative component of the application, but will still be requiring it as a way to develop a wholistic view of the student.

When in doubt, remember that the best rule of thumb is if you wouldn't ask someone else to do it for you then you shouldn't ask AI to do it for you. Read the college policies and stance about AI carefully and be sure that what you are submitting will fall in line with their expectations.

Half Way

I wanted to give you a heads up/ reminder on a few items for this week...

1. We are half-way through the first quarter. Can you believe it? This is a great time to pause and check your grades. How are you doing in your classes? Where do you need to step it up? What changes do you need to make in your homework routine or studying skills?

2. I am out of the building for a conference on Thursday and Friday of this week so if you need me this week, please try to stop by tomorrow or Wednesday.

3. Wednesday is another PACK period day.

4. College rep visits are continuing. The conference I am going to Thursday through Saturday is a national convention of college admissions counselors that is being held in Columbus so there are a TON of colleges that are going to be here this week and so many visits are also happening around this time. Check the counselor website and sign up to meet with the reps.

5. Don't forget that Sunday is the Columbus Suburban College Fair at Capital University. (Again, college reps are here for the conference Thursday through Saturday and then the college fair is on Sunday to align to their timing of being in town.) Don't miss the chance to meet them if you want to explore more colleges.

Lockdown Reflection

I have thought a lot about it and tried to decide what I wanted to say about the lockdown situation we had last week and part of me wanted to just not address it on my blog... but I also believe that my blog is the place where I try to reflect on all of the things happening at school and this was a big one.

Thursday was scary. 

It is scary to think that something bad could happen in our school. There is so much in our world that is negative, beyond our control, and overwhelming to even think about. And then, on Thursday, we were all forced to react to the possibility that the scariness of the rest of the world was happening at Kilbourne - a place we all love, feel safe in, and where we are surrounded by friends and classmates. 

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge that those feelings of fear you were feeling during the lockdown were (and are) valid and real.

I wish none of us had to know a world where scary, unpredictable things can happen. And yet we do. And so that is why we have drills, so that we can practice and think about what it would look like if a real crisis took place. Because I suspect that many of you, like me, weren't really thinking a lot at first - you were just moving and doing the things you have practiced during lockdown drills.

There is no doubt that everything didn't go as planned or expected. There isn't anything good in that except that we are now learning from it. At school we spend a lot of time encouraging students to fail forward, to try hard in your classes and when it all goes wrong, to figure out where things fell apart and work to correct that for the future. I promise, the WKHS administration are working hard to get the various people involved with aspects of the system that didn't work properly to make corrections and get it right so that you will feel even more safe and reassured that should something ever happen at WKHS the systems designed to help keep you protected will work.

You all know that there wasn't actually a crisis that caused the lockdown. But there could have been. And that is yet another reason why it is always so important to speak up if you see something that doesn't look or feel right. You don't want anything bad happening at your school or to you or your friends. We have to look out for one another, support one another, notice if something isn't right and work to fix it. 

If you are still feeling stressed and uneasy about last Thursday's lockdown, I want to remind you that my door is open to you and I am here to talk about those feelings with you. I am so thankful that this wasn't a true crisis and that we are able to process all of this together now with that knowledge. 

Character Strengths

I am always on the look out for new ideas and approaches that students can use to help launch them into their college essays. Essays can be tough for so many students because you aren't used to writing about yourself. And, although this isn't accurate, too many of you also tend to think that there isn't anything unique, interesting or engaging that you could write about.

Let me clear that up right here and now. YOU are the only you there is which makes you unique. YOU are interesting in how you think and what you enjoy. And YOU are engaging in how you live your life to put those interests into play. And even if you are overthinking this (as some of you are prone to do), remember that you can talk about any part of your life and share why that represents an important value or characteristic that helps to make you YOU.

I had heard about the VIA Character Strengths and decided to check it out. Interestingly, when I went to log in I found that I had made an account before and I could see my results, but I went ahead and took the survey again just to see what the process was like and how my results would compare. It was a free, easy process to complete. You go through a series of questions and identify how much or how little that represents you. Remember, with stuff like this, it is always better to try to truly differentiate your answers. The more in the middle you give for everything the less accurate the results tend to be in the end. After completing the questionnaire you will be able to download your VIA Character Strengths profile which gives you a ranked order of what you have identified as being your top strengths.

If you are feeling stuck with trying to identify what you could write about, perhaps doing some more self-reflection activities like the VIA Character Strengths questionnaire could help you come up with ideas on how those strengths show up in your life. If you're interested in checking it out, go to their website at: https://www.viacharacter.org/ 

Columbus Suburban College Fair

The Columbus Suburban College Fair is coming up a week from Sunday on Sunday, September 21st from 1:00 - 3:30pm at The Capital Center on Captial University's Campus (2360 E. Mound St., Columbus, OH 43209).  This is the largest local fall college fair and a great opportunity for our students.

College fairs give you a chance to meet with admissions representatives in person. They are all gathered together in one place in order to meet you and to answer your questions. Many schools also keep track of the number of interactions/ meetings you have with their admissions representatives during your search and application process so that they can gauge your interest level in their school.

Be prepared before you get to the college fair. Know that there will be far more schools than you are interested in or can even truly take in during one afternoon, so it is useful to come up with a list of colleges that you would be interested in learning more about by doing a search that looks for different criteria that seems to be a good fit for you. With that list in hand you now have a starting point for the colleges that you would like to talk to during the fair.

All students are asked to register with Strive Scan by visiting www.strivefair.com because this will allow for you to have a bar code specific to you.  Then, when you are at the college fair next weekend and you talk to a college that interests you, they can simply scan your barcode and that will allow the college to know of your interest. I promise you, this is a MAJOR improvement over the days when students had to hand write out interest cards at each college table.

I encourage you to check out the Columbus Suburban College Fair information on the front page of the WKHS Counselor website for more information about this year's event.

A few other hints:

It can be useful to ask the same questions of each college so that you can compare them and their responses appropriately and I encourage you to consider thinking about the things you most want to know about the school and can’t find in a brochure or website. Everyone is different so your questions are going to be different depending upon your interests, but if you are really interested in playing a club sport in college, you might want to ask about their club/ intramural program and the numbers of students that participate. You may want to ask what the top 2 or 3 majors are on campus as that will give you an idea of what most of the students are interested in studying. If you are undecided about what you would like to study, it would be a great idea to ask them what support and services are available to help students in exploring different majors.

Take something with you to be able to jot some notes on - I suggest a pen or pencil over a phone because even though your phones are amazing for the notes app, the impression it may give to colleges is that you're not engaged in what is happening and are side tracked and paying attention to your phone instead. It is a crazy event with so much happening, so if you don’t write it down as you go you won’t remember much after the fact. The admissions representatives are giving you a small look of the college – what do you think following each glimpse?

When you are walking through the college fair with the list of schools that you want to talk to don’t forget to leave some time for browsing – you may realize that a school you had not previously considered has just what you are looking for in a college. It can be easy for us to get caught in the cycle of only looking at specific schools because that is what “everyone” else is considering.

Ideally, you will be able to avoid getting caught up in the crowds and confusion so that you don’t walk away from the college fair with a lot of brochures, but no real ideas or impressions about which colleges most interest you. At the end of the college fair you will likely have a bag filled with information about colleges. One of the best college fair articles suggested, “Don’t succumb to the temptation of just piling all those brochures in some obscure corner of your bedroom. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a day or two away from the college search. Then get out all of those brochures, along with the notes you took at the fair, and read through them. You may find that some colleges aren’t as interesting as you first thought. Others only look better the more you research them.”

If you have never been to a college fair before, I admit that it often feels like mass chaos.  But it is also the opportunity for you to gain a lot of useful information from a large number of schools in a short period of time.  Good luck and happy college searching… I can’t wait to hear about the schools that spark your interest!

Build My Future

Have you considered a career in a construction related field? Build My Future is a field trip opportunity for current 10th, 11th and 12th graders to learn more about many different residential construction related careers.

These careers include: Roofing, Tiling, Excavating, Landscaping, Welding, Carpentry, Electrical, HVAC, Design, Window installation, Flooring, Architecture, Masonry, Exterior cladding, and Interior finishes.

Students will have the chance to participate in interactive labs with experts in the various fields and to learn more about the career paths available to you for the future.

The field trip will take place on October 1st. Space is limited and registration is open now. If you are interested, please be sure to sign up on the Interest Form that is on the front page of the Counselor Website.

Strength = Connection

This week is national suicide prevention awareness week. You have been/ will be hearing announcements daily to remind you that YOU MATTER! You matter to your family and friends. You matter to your teachers and classmates. You matter in our school and community. It is so easy to get caught in the lie that you are just a number, but you are so much more than that!

One of the greatest strengths that I love about Kilbourne and Worthington as a whole is how all of you show up for one another in times of struggle. We have witnessed that over and over again in big and small ways. Maybe it is giving a smile to someone in the hall or holding the door open for someone or encouraging and listening to a friend who is having a bad day. It is so easy to forget how much you are making a difference in the world around you, but you are having that impact.

Tomorrow there will be a PACK period during which time your teachers will be showing a video about the importance of suicide prevention. The reminder that we hope you take away is that if you are ever worried about a friend (or yourself), remember that help is available. You can ask about how your friend is doing, you can an adult and we can check in on the friend, or both!

Aside from the PACK period which is a district-wide initiative, the WKHS Counselors will also be in the commons during all of the lunch periods tomorrow with goodies and give-aways connected to suicide prevention and the 988 crisis line.

If you or someone you care about is ever in emotional distress or having thoughts of suicide, help is only three numbers away: 988. This is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline—available 24/7, free, and confidential. Since its launch in 2022, the Lifeline has supported more than 17.5 million people and answered more than 12 million calls. 

Our greatest strength is connection—reach out, lean in, and know you belong!